How to spend billions – fast: Carney’s Defence Deadline

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

Today's episode is sponsored by Smart Travel, a podcast from NerdWallet.

Do you have a friend who treats airfare like a puzzle and somehow always ends up with a first class

upgrade? Smart Travel is like that friend, minus the group text. NerdWallet's travel journalist

breakdown the pros and cons of travel decisions, like when lounge access is worth paying for,

and which hotel loyalty programs actually pay off. Make your travel dollars work harder.

Follow Smart Travel on your favourite podcast app, self-directed investing,

trading, full service wealth management, automated investing, financial planning,

thematic investing, retirement planning, few, and to think. That's just a small taste of what

Schwab offers. Because Schwab knows that when it comes to your finances, choice matters.

No matter your goals, investing style, life stage or experience,

Schwab has everything you need, all in one place, so you can invest your way.

Visit Schwab.com to learn more.

This is The Documentary from the BBC World Service.

A race is on in Canada, against time and history.

Its military is rebuilding on a deadline.

Here in a bitterly cold Quebec morning recruits dash across the slick frozen deck of a

wobbly suspension bridge, shouting, they're platoon ID.

They're part of a surge of young women and men joining the Canadian Armed Forces.

It's what I don't like. Why is French is little king?

I'm from the BBC, it's English only. I'm afraid. Can I just get your name on

tape please? Yes, it's Captain Zeput-i-5. This is my platoon here, 60% amazing.

And how long have these recruits been here? They were here for five weeks.

For five weeks to go. Yes, and they have still four weeks to go.

Okay, so not fully cooked. Exactly. Half way there.

Excellent, and you're seeing lots of people coming. Absolutely.

All around recruits in green fatigues, climb, crawl, and cheer each other on.

While some sprint over the slippery bridge, others

hive themselves over a high wall. They land in the snow, crouch, and point their weapons.

So it's obstacle course? It's the diva, the resiliency, and teamwork.

Okay, okay. It's mainly that. And of course, it's hard. They have the weapon now,

they do it once without the weapon, just to get used to the obstacle course,

and then after they do it with the weapon.

Canada is looking to do more with weapons. A judgment has been made at the very top

that the world is suddenly more dangerous. The threats that Canada faces are multiplying.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, not just Russia or China.

We're facing the most significant crisis of our lifetimes because of President Trump's

unjustified trade actions and his threats to our sovereignty.

Carney has given his generals and admirals an unusual command.

Spend money. Lots of it quickly. He set the clock running to inject an extra

nine billion Canadian dollars by the end of the fiscal year, and he's promised

billions more in the years to come. The brave women and men who are protecting our sovereignty

do not have the resources they need for a riskier world.

My name is Neil Rezel. I was raised in a Canadian military family and I've been a journalist

for almost 30 years. This is a story I never thought I'd tell. Our military just isn't built

to spend quickly. At times, it's struggle to even spend what it's been given.

So, for assignment here on the BBC World Service, I'm following this new money to see

what difference it's making, what it can buy, and what it can't.

Can Canada long criticized by its NATO allies for failing to spend turn fear into force?

For almost anyone who joins the Canadian Armed Forces, basic training starts here.

Don't move your knee. Just move your left arm.

The Canadian forces leadership and recruit school, a huge complex in Saint-Gyau-Séritier du

Gisalfa Montreal. We're now practiced at your own time.

In a giant indoor parade ground, about 60 uniformed recruits are practicing a rifle salute.

What? What? What? What? What? What?

Breaking movements into counts. It's probably one of thousands of movements and methods they'll

learn in their nine weeks here. Move through the warn of hallways,

and there are innumerable classrooms and this one they're learning to make

their C7 rifle safe down the hall first aid in a big room and an adjoining

building how to deal with chemical biological and nuclear attacks the whole

place is a factory for the profession of arms there's so much going on it's

hard to picture what a surge of spending would look like here or if there's

even been one so that's retreat to the quiet office of the man in charge

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Kelly some aspects of my job have been very easy

because I have no functional budget right now any money that I can spend to

increase basic training capacity and throughput is there wow wow like a blank

check effectively essentially there's rigorous financial controls but we're

being told now is the time so any investments you can make to increase the

quality of your training the throughput of your training the number of

candidates you can train successfully and get out the door like it's

absolutely game on so what do you buy when you're running a soldier factory

for us it's a combination of time and beds we need beds for candidates to

sweep in and we need time to train them so for example we realize that with the

increase number of people we turn around in the diamond ordered bunk beds like a

million dollars in bunk beds a million dollars turns out buying hundreds and

hundreds of bunk beds made in Canada can be expensive but we could turn around

very quickly and not have to do a year of a business planning cycle and just say

if we can find them we can buy them it's not just beds he recently bought 10,000

backpacks 25,000 pairs of boots no years-long planning process he needed

them he got them this is not the Canadian military I grew up with my father served

in the Royal Canadian Air Force for 37 years he was a cold warrior when he

retired in 1991 I mused about enlisting but that was firm don't do it he said

there's no future the cold war over he knew budgets would be slashed the

coming years proved him right the number of active duty service members fell

by almost a third and our NATO allies noticed the Canadian Armed Forces are

really good in 2016 President Barack Obama brought the message directly to

parliament the world needs more Canada NATO needs more Canada we need you MPs

applauded but they didn't boost funding to the NATO level last year President

Trump deployed a different strategy you know they don't pay very much for

military and the reason they don't pay much is they assume that we're going to

protect them that's not an assumption they can make and he added a new kind of

pressure talk of Canada as a 51st state it drove Canadians nuts mark

Karni an untested politician rode a nationalist wave to power President

Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us that will never that

will never ever happen Lieutenant Colonel Keely had the news on last summer

when a newly elected prime minister made one of his first big policy

pronouncements it amounts to almost nine billion extra Canadian dollars to

be invested by the end of March first up a big pay rise for those in uniform

I was watching on TV and I walked out from the office and there was a couple

platoons and they were in the barber shop sitting there getting haircuts and

I was like hey good news the prime minister is all given you a 20% pay raise

and they all jumped up and started howling with the light they went the only

ones on the other side of the country and a recruiting office near van koover

we all had the announcement on the news exciting time to be in the military in

general definitely captain Joshua register oversees recruitment in British

Columbia and Yukon his orders in this race to rebuild the Canadian armed forces

keep new people coming through the door or in his case two doors a guard needs

to let you into the recruiting office when I visited it was full of empty chairs

we are trying to get away from having people come in person in order to

expedite recruiting processing times and with our new online application

process it's less full than it used to be for sure which means that we can

offer quicker customer service speed matters the military has been blasted for

a recruitment process that would last months or even years during which time

many candidates would simply bail out captain register says the new money is

helping change that we've been allocated more resources at the end of the day

it comes down to staff power some of the processes that we've used in the

background have changed we have upgraded our capacity to conduct criminal

record checks and background checks he says they've streamlined paperwork to it

all adds up last year the number of recruits nationally jumped 55% to hit a 10

year high this year will be even better he says again this is not the Canadian

military observers had come to know not long ago the defense minister said the

force was in a debt spiral but there are choke points money can't fix quickly

across the street from the recruiters here we have the medical offices so this is

actually our primary thing that needs to happen in person the medical is the

one step that you can't really take care of online so they kind of become a

sticking point for their recruiting fixing that'll be really hard there's a

nationwide shortage of doctors still captain register is bullish we will do it

yes we are on pace to exceed last year's record you will do it that's a

confident captain I have the privilege of being able to see the prospects and

affect the outcome so but it's too soon to declare mission accomplished all these

new recruits produce a problem for Lieutenant Colonel Keely in Quebec so our

biggest issue right now frankly is just there are more recruits who want to enroll

every single week than we can train and our gap right now is that the recruiting

system can enroll about 300 Canadians a week and we can only accept about 240

his base normally takes four to five thousand people a year next year he says

it could reach ten thousand so they're cracking up an entirely new basic

training center in Ontario deciding to open up an entire new basic training

school within a year and a half timeline and actually have it running that's a

pretty quick turn for the Canadian Armed Forces these recruits don't just need

new beds and boots and backpacks they need people to teach them all these new

moves here too he's waving his checkbook to hire instructors we've got about

93 year contracts open including paid moves from anywhere in Canada so if

anyone in the Canadian Armed Forces any reserve component anywhere in Canada

wants to come join us we will pay for their full move here to the Montreal

area and as long as they do one full year of employment we'll also pay for

their full move back Lieutenant Colonel Keely has more than money at his

disposal to meet the mission to grow the force he has discretion he's changed

standards instructors used to be all mid-career uniform trained leaders now he's

wrong some from the junior ranks and retirees and then there are the standards

for the recruits themselves let's go spread out come on wake up here a platoon

and sweats is warming up ahead of a workout what's happening

currently they're doing PT so physical training they're gonna do some squats

some lunges they're getting ready for a rock march tomorrow who was that so

they put on a really big heavy bag and they walk until we tell them to stop

basically it's only 5k but it's still a little bit of a gut check and how

is the kind of baseline fitness level changed through the years it's changed

quite a bit to be honest it's gone from really hard charging soldiers

noticing quite a few people are they say they've trained before but they've

never rough marched in their life they struggle a little bit the standards of

those starting basic training may be down but Lieutenant Colonel Keely says the

standards of those finishing remain the same he tracks the graduation rate the

percentage who actually get through so we've seen our average graduation rate

which is around 83% over about 20 year run of calculation it dropped to 77%

last year but it's important to put that in the context of almost doubling the

number of recruits that came at the door so the share of dropouts is up but the

absolute number who finish is up even more we still put 2200 more basic training

qualified calf members onto their next training establishment then we were

scheduled to the year before we've seen a huge net benefit to the Canadian

Armed Forces even though more candidates are coming here and being

unsuccessful for a variety of reasons these are the ones who made it

platoons sound off on that giant indoor parade ground

after nine weeks of crawling shooting shouting and more one final task march

before families and friends as graduates this is the documentary from the BBC

World Service

Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing another checkered flag for the books time to

celebrate with chamba jump in at chamba casino dot com let's chamba no

purchase necessary BTW group boy were prohibited by mar ctnc 21 plus sponsored by

chamba casino momentum doesn't appear overnight it's built refined repeated

Puerto Rico understands momentum as companies rethink supply chains and

reshore operations they're choosing a location that already delivers life

saving medicines advanced manufacturing and global scale innovation as a US

jurisdiction operating under federal law with competitive tax incentives

designed for long term investment companies don't just relocate here they

scale here not culture or business culture and business Puerto Rico it's not

what's next it's where visit invest PR dot org forward slash business I'm Neil

Rizel so that's it the ceremonies over now the families are coming down

out of the bleachers they're streaming out into this parade ground and I can

see hugging their children their babies grandparents it looks like it's a

very happy scene here congratulations do you need to find somebody I see you

looking around the bleachers my father-in-law suddenly she's smothered in hugs

and someone hands her a giant bouquet oh my god no I am so sorry you okay I am

beyond words I'm excited and I'm grateful to be here with all my friends and all

my peers and instructors and my family why did you sign up now I always

had a call to serve and I wanted to do my part for this country that I open the

doors to me and to my family and I think I can do great things here and to help

others and to help this country they're absolutely shining right so much you're

together yeah how does this moment feel to see this oh it's pretty awesome like

she works so hard she has so many difficulties and she went through it so awesome

yeah this is a very exciting moment for the Canadian Armed Forces the

government is putting a lot of money into the Canadian Armed Forces right now

it's about time it's about time yeah yeah so many cuts during the last 30 years so yeah

what's that I had this conversation with a number of families here the Canadian

government is pumping a lot of money into it yeah it's a great time it feels

fantastic it makes me feel more settled more excited for him and he's got a

great future ahead of him really like it's incredible I'm so proud the flip side

of the money though is that the government says yeah it's a pretty dangerous

world out there now how do you feel about that I feel like they're really

freaking lucky to have them honestly they've got my son and they are damn lucky to have him

you could feel the pride but pride isn't readiness it doesn't put planes in the sky

or ships to sea this is a squimalt harbor on Vancouver Island home of Canada's Pacific fleet

access is tightly controlled a century ago big guns on the hills behind me guarded the narrow

entrance across the water gray warships lie beneath towering cranes from here they can

slip out and soon be in the open Pacific or at least they can when they're working the prime

minister has described their readiness in brutally simple terms only one of our four submarines

is sea worthy less than half our maritime fleet and land vehicles are operational while he's

speaking the truth rear admiral David Patel the most senior officer here on the west coast the

part of one submarine that is accurate and we're getting that submarine back to sea so I appreciate

any government official stands up and speaks truth because it allows us to then communicate to

Canadians about our challenges and our opportunities as we reinvest and build the force let's see

what they're up against what difference can a sudden rush of money make to keeping ships at sea

so when you're going on the ladders three points contact face the ladder I've seen many people go

down okay all right thank you hazards yeah there's the first one there's a second

petting officer second-class Christopher Kale helps me not break my neck as we squeeze into

the crowded space below deck of a frontline warship called a frigate okay you see when I was saying

space is a premium yeah so there's catwalks that go up and down everywhere there's machinery underneath

the above the side it's the smells of kind of bilge and diesel or what's what's that smell it will

definitely be a mix of oil diesel seawater will combination of all one okay I can't really get away

from that we're deep inside HMCS van Kuver it's been in port more than a year now and it isn't

expected to be operational again until 2030 it's getting a full refit everything needs to be checked

and then checked again and it's no small task all around our gauges fuse boxes wire switches

displays and what must be miles and miles of cabling and pike because it's a warship there's

lots of redundancy so there's backups on backups but all of that redundancy needs maintenance

still yes it does what can be done to speed up the maintenance process because you can't even

foot that many people down here like I know it's it's not a fix with a ship with this much stuff

in it this many competing interests throwing more people at the issue it's not really going to

increase the efficiency he is quality trained personnel that can do a lot of things on the

ground that are flexible that can understand what they have to do and we just slowly develop

those people over time in his case it took 12 years in the Navy to learn his job which is why

go faster has limits HMCS van Kuver is just one of five warships being worked on during my visit

most of them you would say they're probably at the 30 year mark plus or minus which is at the end

of their design life so these ships have been around as long as you have longer actually they've

been around longer than I have Navy captain David Rebares is commander of fleet maintenance here

it's his job to make these old ships safe and see worthy we're now seeing new types of defects

that arise so as we're peeling off some insulation on the insides of the ship we're seeing some

degradation in places the steel hulls are getting thin what we're seeing now is more steel work

steel work is often quite demanding it often requires the removal of a lot of equipment

and that equipment is brought from the cramped quarters deep below deck here

we're entering into the the combat system portions here we do the repairs and refurbishment

on on naval weapons the Navy's enormous maintenance facility it's like several warehouses

stitched together a whole world under fluorescent light we're walking just by the pipe fitters they

can manufacture any replacement piping for the ships and submarines here they're giant machines

everywhere looming overwork benches where the tiniest details are mastered we're entering the

machining section here so we have the full machining capability here the fleet can be remade

piece by piece they even make their own parts there's not thousands of these ships so we have to

deal with the obsolescence and parts are not always available so being able to manufacture them

in-house and reinstall it is crucial for keeping the ships alive and operational

five ships are here the facility is near capacity and captain reber says he'd like to hire

two hundred more people it's not like we can flip the switch and conduct all sorts of

acquisitions or procurements right but the new money does loosen bottlenecks what it's done is

that the plans that we had to improve our operations to increase the input of apprentices for example

or to acquire tooling or spares that were being throttled back because of the financial

restraints that we had in the past now we're able to and proceed with those procurements

he now has money to buy parts and pay overtime and they're already have been specific wins

we leave the shop floor and head up to his office there's a great view above a length dusting

of snow on the mountain tops below a black submarine surrounded by scaffolding in a dry dock

over there in the dry dock is hmcs cornerbrook when the prime ministers said canada had one

seaworthy sub this is it but even it's been out of the water since last fall one of the main jobs

has been to change its batteries each one of them would be above the size of a person and wait

it is over four five hundred pounds so quite an impressive evolution when they're replacing them

they barely fit in the hatch that they're being brought on board through and that is done using

a crane so obviously there's some limitations with wind and to make sure we do it safely and

they're once on board they're actually moved on teak boards using dish soap you heard it right

a squirt dish soap on teak boards to slide the batteries into place is that work tied to the new

two percent target the work itself would have existed regardless so now we have more tools that

are disposal more specialized equipment that allow us to do it more effectively with the submarine

he's used new money to buy a battery charger and had it placed close to the dry dock and he's

been able to pay for extra shifts because he's under pressure to get the sub back in the water

and if you look at a submarine there's only two access points it's fairly limited in space

it's not easy to send many many folks on board at the same time so the only way we can really

increase the number of hours of work that we're conducting on board is is to work around the clock

are you gonna hit the deadline we have to hit the deadline because we're limited by the tides

of when a submarine can come in and out of dry dock right so the wind the tides there's a lot that

you don't control absolutely for captain rebeirs Canada's spending race runs into physics the size

of a submarine hatch the pull of the tide for rear admiral patchal it's not physics but math

the biggest challenge for me is actually not having enough ships I need more ships to send more

sailors to see sailors want to go to see we hire them to go to see I need to get them to see

so the biggest bottleneck in terms that you know train recruit retain inspire is actually

bunks for sailors to go to see what is a metric the public should use to see how effective this

new wave of spending really is it's an age old question how do you measure readiness how much

military capability was required to defend a massive g7 country right with the longest coastline

in the world a quarter of a million kilometers enough distress run the equator six times I

guess massive right so if you ask me how many ships do we need it's it's a big number I think

Canadians will know it'll take some time but I'm expecting 10 years from now to see our navy

and all three of our oceans all the time and that is a goal I'm expecting to see this harbor full

of HMC ships and ships that are ready to go to see and ready to defend Canada and supporter

allies abroad Canada has promised a boost military spending whale into the next decade

but it all gets reviewed in 2029 the year President Trump leaves office so here's the real question

is all this a spending sprint or the start of a marathon the answer will be measured in Canada's

capabilities thanks for listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service I'm Neil

the editor is Penny Murphy Neil Churchill did the mix